Back to basics Cue ball or object ball

Two-time U.S. Open nine-ball champion, Dynamite Darren Appleton. Most important one was winning the world ten-ball championship because it's everyone's dream to be world champion. Could go on to the edges. I'm a grinder, fighter, play with a lot of emotion, a lot of heart. Hello guys, welcome back to another back to basics edition and today we're going to go over do you look at the cue ball or do you look at the object ball during your stroke? It's something that gets spoken about all the time in the cue sport world. I think the majority of the players do look at the object ball but for sure there's players look at the cue ball including myself probably for like 50% of my shots but also a lot of people ask me at what point do you just keep your eyes on the cue ball if that's what you're going to look at last and what point do you do you keep your eyes on the object ball if that's going to be the ball that you're going to look at last also and this is where a lot of you do go wrong. You've got a lot of inconsistencies and bad routine so this is something we're going to go over talk about and I'll do some demonstrations and hopefully it will help you out. Right then so let's get straight into it guys so I'm going to start with keeping my eyes on the cue ball and a lot of you've asked me and I see a lot of you make this mistake is that when you're looking at the cue ball so when do you keep your eyes on the cue ball only so like I've done with all the basics additions it's very important whether it's your alignment your timing and tempo your stance how and where to hold the cue this all connects together so if you're lined up properly for me personally it doesn't massively matter whether I'm looking at the cue ball on my strike or the object ball because if I'm lined up right as long as I put a good timing and tempo on it and I'm lined up properly I know that I should make the ball but if you're lazy and you get down to the shot then everything's just going to break down you're not going to be consistent so the thing I see a lot of you make the mistake so we're going to start by looking at the cue ball so when I get down now and I'm so all I do is just line up I make I make sure I'm lined up before I get down so I'm lined up I'll just look back and forth cue ball to object ball cue ball to object ball making sure everything's nice and lined up but when I'm ready to pull the trigger like my last feather of the cue ball now my eyes stay pinned to the cue ball so when I come back my eyes are on the cue ball and then I go through the cue ball my eyes stay on the cue ball the problem with a lot of you guys what I do see is that you're doing this you're like getting down looking at the object ball cue ball object ball object ball ready to pull the trigger you're pulling it back and then on your follow through you're transferring your eyes to the cue ball the problem with that it's going to be very difficult to hit exactly where you want to be on the cue ball because because when you're pulling the cue back your eyes are on the object ball so then you might just slightly miss it the cue ball so it's very important when you start pulling the cue back or ready to pull the cue back keep your eyes on the exact spot where you on the cue ball so pull it back keep your eyes on the cue ball so that'd be my best advice if you're if you're looking at the cue ball over the object ball so let's do a demonstration so I look back and forth a little quick glance at the object ball now may I stay on the cue ball I put a nice easy stroke on it and it worked out pretty good then I do one more of those so make sure that my alignment's right get down to the shot look back and forth make sure everything's nice and lined up and now my eyes transfer to the cue ball and just pull the trigger so the good thing there and what I do know is that I'm hitting exactly where I want to hit on the cue ball so that's very important so let's go to the object ball so the same thing again you want consistency and a good routine so when I look at the object ball I like to look back and forth but the last thing I want to do is that on my backstroke I don't want to be looking at the cue ball still and then on my downswing I don't want to transfer my eyes to the object ball because that can create some head movement obviously your eyes are going to move which you don't really want and you can it just creates like a lot of uh anxiety you get a bit anxious and it's very easy to put a quick stroke in but not only that you're not sure if you're striking the cue ball properly but also you're not sure if if you're sighting the object ball properly so I think it's very important to be consistent with what you're doing so all you got to do is look back and forth one last little look at the cue ball and then when you're when you're ready to pull the cue back keep your eyes on the object ball just like that because then you put a good stroke on it but you know you're hitting the object ball exactly where you want to hit it but not only that you've got that consistency and good routine and good rhythm so when you're ready to pull that trigger and you're pulling that cue back keep your eyes on the object ball so all I'm doing is looking back and forth and then my eyes go to the object ball and then just put the best stroke on it you can and that's what it's all about so yeah very important that you have a good routine consistency when you look at the object ball when you're ready to pull that cue back keep your eyes on object ball and vice versa for the cue ball and if you do that then it should massively help you and regards people asking me all the time do you look at the cue ball or the object ball I don't think it massively matters it's not as important as what people think it's whatever works best for you and obviously it depends on your eyesight I mean I just look at the object ball all the time or at least I thought I did or I think I did but in recent times because my eyes are not as good as they used to be I've really worked hard on my alignment like I said so that so for them like long cut shots and the long shots if I'm not seeing the object ball well I just keep my eyes on the cue ball and rely on my alignment so I'm like set up right before I get down to the shot but like for this type of shot here when I'm close to the object ball and I can see the pocket in my line of sight then I definitely look at the object ball but yeah you just gotta find what's right for you you can switch both you can look at the cue ball for certain shots the object ball for certain shots it just depends on you but long as you put but long as you do with the basics right as I've just said there then you'll definitely find out what works best for you anyway I hope that helps and we will see you for the next one